73 



to the gizzard of birds," Ibid. As in the Dasypoda (Zool. Proc. i, 

 142 & 154), so in the larger specimen of the Tortoise, the coats of 

 the stomach, generally thick, are especially so at the pylorus. 



3. In the smaller species of Tortoise I observed that the colon is 

 prolonged beyond the insertion of the ileum, so as to form a short 

 csecum, as described by Martin in his account of the Testudo graca 

 (Zool. Proc. i. 63 & 74). In my larger species there was no csecum ; 

 such is also the caše with the Testudo indica (Zool. Proc. i. 47). In 

 the Testudo tabulata " there is no trace of appendix cseci " (Holberton 

 in Zool. Journal, iv. 325). On the other hand, Prof. Owen has 

 ascertained the presence of a csecum in another species of Tortoise, 

 Emys concentrica, Leconte (Zool. Proc. i. 74). From these accu- 

 mulated observations, it becomes evident that the presence of a 

 caecum is a varying character in the Tortoises. A similar variable- 

 ness in this structure has been remarked by Prof. Owen in the genus 

 Dasypus (Zool. Proc. i. 156). 



4. A great tendency to anchylose parts usually distinct, and to 

 ossify others generally cartilaginous, is observable in the Tortoise in 

 the ribs, in the dorsal vertebrse, in the scapulse and clavicles, in the 

 component parts of the pelvis, in the sternal cartilages, and in the 

 parts forming the plastron. In the Armadillos it may be remarked 

 in the cervical vertebrae, in the sternal portions of the ribs, and in 

 the manubrium and clavicular processes (Owen in Zool. Proc. ii. 1 34). 

 In the Sloths also it is especially evident in the anchylosis of the 

 bones of the hand. 



5. Hence results a similarity of locomotion in the Tortoises and 

 Armadillos ; so that the following extract from Prof. Owen, referring 

 to the motion of the latter animals, will apply almost eąually well to 

 that of the former : " Every one who has seen the living Armadillo 

 running about the open plot of ground in the Society's Gardens mušt 

 have been struck with the machine-like manner in which' the body is 

 carried along. The short legs are almost concealed, and their motions 

 are not accompanied by any corresponding inUections of the spine, 

 the two extremities of the trunk not being alternately raised and de- 

 pressed as in the ąuadrupeds which movė by bounds " (Zool. Proc. 

 ii. 135). 



6. The anterior articular processes of the vertebrae of the Arma- 

 dillo, especially of the hinder dorsal and the lumbar regions, assist as 

 " strutts or braces" in the support of its heavy shell; whilst in the 

 Tortoise a similar object is effected by the small osseous supports 

 which proceed from its anchylosed spine. 



7. Both in the Armadillo and Tortoise the ossa ilia appear to serve 

 as additional supports to the shell. 



Sect. II. Of the Relation of the Edentatous Mammalia to the 

 Reptiles. 



1. In the Two-toed Anteater the ribs are so broad as to overlap 

 each other likę tiles (Cuvier, Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 

 translated by Ross, 1802, vol. i. p. 209). This is, I believe, the nearest 

 resemblance amongst other Vertcbrata to the bouy case of the Tor- 



